The Do’s and Don’ts of Creating a Secure Password

“Security breach” seems to be a phrase now used in everyday life, and “Make sure you create a strong password” is advice that can not be repeated too often. You need strong passwords to protect the confidential information you access when you sign on anywhere, and these days you sign on everywhere.

Despite all the stories we hear of identity theft and system sabotage (remember this 3rd Party Payroll Breach or the Heartbleed Bug?), system designers still rely on your passwords as the first layer of protection for your data. That’s because good passwords actually work! Follow to below advice to decrease your odds of hackers being able to access your data.

Logical Words Are Not Logical Passwords

Put at least a little bit of thought into your password! The word “PASSWORD” has now been officially replaced by “12345678” as the top used password, but each of these is almost as bad as any plain word straight out of the dictionary. Did you know that hackers have software that attempts to attack your account by trying every single known word? It’s time to mix and match!

Google Knows All

Your name and birth date are no secret! Same goes for your spouse and your kids. Serious hackers have that information and will try those combinations early in their attempts.

What is a Secure Password?

Don’t outsmart yourself! A good password has a combination of at least eight uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation characters, but throw them together at random and not even you, yourself, will be able to hack into your accounts.

Use the trick of choosing a word or phrase you can remember and then replacing letters with symbols or numbers: $ for S, 3 for E, @ for a, 0 for O, etc. Add punctuation and numbers that you can remember, and change it up a bit from account to account. Here’s one example, but don’t use it! /$t@y0uT!!